The Government on Birth Control

The Obama administration’s decision to require health insurers to cover all FDA-approved contraceptives, and several other related services, free of charge to the patient goes a long way in explaining why the economy is struggling. It’s the same pattern we’ve seen repeatedly from this president:

Identify a “crisis”—in this case, access to contraceptives and other women’s health services;

Accuse the private sector of profiteering and greed for not meeting people’s needs; and

Announce how Obama will force companies to act appropriately—which, by the way, will grow the economy and create countless new jobs.

The fact is that neither President Obama nor his economic team seem to understand the first thing about what drives business and economic growth. Just look at some of the underlying assumptions behind their actions.

Regulations Have No Cost. Obama, and apparently most Democrats, believe federally imposed regulations make markets more efficient and equitable, improve quality, and lower costs.

Hence his 2,700-page health care bill, the Dodd-Frank financial reform, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, just to name some of what Obama thinks are major achievements.

The Affordable Care Act (i.e., ObamaCare) imposed countless new restrictions and mandated benefits on health insurance. When health insurers started the process of raising premiums to meet the new coverage demands, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had a fit. No way did all of these regulations and newly covered items cost that much, she asserted. Didn’t the president repeatedly claim that his reform would lower health insurance premiums by $2,500 a year by the end of his first term?

So the secretary, smelling what she thinks is a health insurer skunk, set up a process to monitor health insurance premium increases, and woe to the company that offends her sense of how much health insurance should cost. Now, the administration is once again touting new “free” coverages.

To begin with, there is no crisis of access to affordable contraceptives. One pharmacist told me that birth control pills can run between $20 a month for the generic versions to $100 for some of the newest pills that try to reduce the estrogen content—and that’s before insurance. Depending on the insurance coverage, the co-pay could be as low as $10. And Walmart offers two birth control pills for $9 a month regardless of health coverage.